[Pollster1]

I agree with the article that Trump is very unlikely to win on the second ballot unless he starts courting the delegates.

Option 1: Win on the first ballot and make that issue irrelevant.

Option 2: Start courting his own delegates to keep them loyal, start courting unbound delegates (”stealing” them) to add to his lead for the first ballot and boost his numbers if it goes to a second ballot, and start courting Cruz/Kasich delegates (”stealing” them too) to take their support as soon as they are unbound.

If Trump makes the effort, he should have a huge advantage in courting delegates. That is normally done over elegant meals, and he owns some great restaurants. It is also sometimes done by bringing the delegates and their families to a resort for those discussions. Again, Trump owns some great resorts.

If Trump doesn’t bother courting his own delegates and others, he’s the one responsible if he loses. If Trump doesn’t want the nomination enough to try, I’m okay with nominating and electing Cruz instead. Cruz and Trump are both imperfect but they agree far more than 80% of the time (see my tagline from Ronald Reagan). They should be friends and allies, and we should treat both of them as such.

[DavidLSpud]

/If Trump doesn’t bother courting his own delegates and others, he’s the one responsible if he loses. If Trump doesn’t want the nomination enough to try, I’m okay with nominating and electing Cruz instead. Cruz and Trump are both imperfect but they agree far more than 80% of the time (see my tagline from Ronald Reagan). They should be friends and allies, and we should treat both of them as such./

Agreed.

[MHGinTN]

IF memory serves, Trump is co-owner in lots of businesses. Co owner. These still need to trun a profit for Trump to continue in co-ownership so there is a limit to what he could do with these businesses regarding ‘courting delegates’.

[IrishBrigade]

They should be friends and allies, and we should treat both of them as such.

If Cruz wishes to be a friend and ally to Trump, he will drop out as soon as he is eliminated from first round contention, throwing his support to the frontrunner...but he will not.

Instead he will cling to the lifeline afforded by the archaic selection process, in the mistaken belief that he will beat the opposition, and Trump will not...and in fact, if that is the GOP objective, both Trump and Cruz will be bypassed in favor of Kasich, who polls far better...

[Liz]

THIS JUST IN: Ted Cruz's and Marco Rubio's supporters have
teamed up in Arkansas to pack the state delegation with individuals
who'll turn against Donald Trump in a contested convention in Cleveland.

==========================================

Oh, wait a sec......I hear Arkansas delegates are getting mailings.....about all
the amenities at Mar a Lago. Amazing what a flight in Trump’s plane and a
night at Mar a Lago might do for a delegate's attitude.

How you gonna keep a delegate in a Canuck's camp
after they've been wined and dined in Palm Beach?

[DrewsDad]

The real strategy is to get delegates selected that are loyal to you. Courting them afterwards is not very effective.

[Hawthorn]

>> Cruz and Trump are both imperfect but they agree far more than 80% of the time <<

I don’t see it. Not at all. The two gents agree on securing the border, and they agree that Obamacare needs to be replaced — although they don’t agree on the details of a replacement..

But where else do they agree?

As far as I can tell, they don’t agree on tax policy, not on trade policy, not on eminent domain, not on bankruptcy, not on the role of the free market, not on the importance of the Constitution, obviously not on the rule of law, not on NATO, not on the nuclear triad, not on the rules of civility and “presidential” behavior, and not on the need for a potential POTUS to have a serious and deep understanding of the issues.

So out of 13 issues that I mentioned, the two men would seem to agree on only two. Therefore, in terms of the “raw” percentages, giving equal weight to each issue mentioned, they would seem to agree on 6.5% of the issues.

Or if we take my 13 issues and assign a triple weight to the issues of border security and Obamacare, with a unit weight assigned to each of the other issues, Mr. Trump and Sen. Cruz would seem to have an “agreement index” of only about 35%.

Still, if you can change the model or the issues or the weights — and thereby come up with a radically different score — I’d be most interested to see your calculations.